Onslow Schools hires interim superintendent

Thursday

Jul 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Onslow County Schools has an interim superintendent.

AMANDA HICKEY Daily News Staff

Onslow County Schools has an interim superintendent.

Former superintendent Ron Singletary has verbally agreed to the terms of the position and is expected to sign the contract, which was approved Wednesday by the Board of Education, on Monday, according to school officials.

Onslow County Schools Superintendent Kathy Spencer announced her retirement, effective Aug. 1, on June 27.

Singletary, who retired in 2006, told The Daily News that the offer was unexpected but an honor.

“I’m very excited to be able to step back into something that I think is so important for this community, and that is developing these young people and working with a great group of educators that do a great job every day,” he said.

Singletary said he doesn’t foresee any new initiatives during his time as interim superintendent.

“I know that we have a lot of things already working and the main thing is to see that those continue to move to their targets and we keep things rolling so when they do have a new superintendent named they can step in and keep moving forward,” he said.

Per the agreement, Singletary would serve as interim superintendent from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31. If the Board of Education has not yet selected a new superintendent by that date, Singletary would continue to serve on a month-to-month basis.

Board Chairwoman Pam Thomas said the bulk of Singletary’s salary will be paid for by the state and that he will receive the state base salary for a superintendent. Onslow County’s local allotment and travel expenses will not exceed $2,000 per month, she said.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the base superintendent salary for a school system that has 10,001 to 25,000 students ranges from $5,710 to $10,679 per month. Singletary’s salary will not be made public until his contract is signed, according to the board.

The Onslow County Board of Education has decided to use the North Carolina School Board Association in its search for a new superintendent. The board received a presentation from the association on Wednesday.

The association will, among other tasks, help the school board advertise the position, receive public input, gather applications and compile information on the candidates.

Allison Schafer, legal counsel and director of policy for the N.C. School Board Association, told the board that when the association serves as a consultant, it gathers information but does not provide opinions.

“Our philosophy is … you are the board of education, you were hired to make this decision. … This is the most important decision you make as the board of education: who your leader is going to be,” she said.

The association’s services will cost $15,000 plus expenses, according to information provided to the board.

Board Member Paul Wiggins said he agree with that the superintendent hire is the most important decision the board will make.

“We’re talking about the person that leads our staffs and leads us in the right decision to take care of kids. We don’t make a decision more important about this,” Wiggins said.

He wasn’t the only one that felt that way.

“To be fair to all of our employees … and everyone in our community I think they expect us to exhaust all efforts to find the very best candidate that we can find,” Board of Education member Earl Taylor said. “We did that the last time and we got the best candidate.”

Jeff Brown, the only Board of Education member to vote against hiring the N.C. School Board Association to help with the superintendent search, said he was concerned that the costs could “snowball” and reminded the board of the recent budget process where cuts were made due to a funding shortfall from Onslow County.

Amanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at amanda.hickey@jdnews.com.